Perhaps another stinging playoff defeat could be handled better if the Angels had just a little time to mourn.

It won’t happen. Expiring contracts dictate that the Angels have some big decisions ahead if they want to avenge their disappointing showing in the American League Division Series.

Perhaps it’s better this way. Management will remember the lack of clutch hitting, the solid starting pitching that was wasted and that failed suicide squeeze that finished off the season, but it won’t have to dwell on it.

If payroll does not change next season, as owner Arte Moreno already has said it won’t, the Angels are about to say goodbye to some key contributors from 2008.

If the ALDS games against the Boston Red Sox weren’t gut-wrenching enough, the winter months might fray whatever nerves remain for General Manager Tony Reagins.

Reagins is coming off an impressive debut season in the GM hot seat, adding Jon Garland and Torii Hunter last offseason and bringing aboard Mark Teixeira during the season. But the next four months will go a long way toward telling just how good his tenure can be.

Garret Anderson will wait and see if the Angels will exercise a $14 million team option. It is far from a sure thing considering how many contract decisions have to be made. Vladimir Guerrero ($15 million) and John Lackey ($9 million) also have expensive team options.

“I haven’t even thought about it and it’s not my concern right now,” Anderson said when asked if he thought he played his last game with the Angels. “That’s the last thing on my mind is worrying about baseball business.”

Teixeira, Garland, Francisco Rodriguez, Juan Rivera and Darren Oliver all are set to become free agents.

Crunching the numbers on a massive Teixeira deal would appear to be the team’s biggest priority. He could command as much as $18 million a season.

His agent, of course, is Scott Boras, meaning that working a deal doesn’t figure to be as straightforward as dropping an eye-popping dollar amount on him and giving a quick deadline to accept it, like the team did with Torii Hunter during Thanksgiving week last season.

Boras’ track record suggests he will use more of the offseason to establish a contract price, a ploy that might force the Angels to part ways with the slugging first baseman, who met expectations when he was obtained for Casey Kotchman at the trade deadline.

With so many decisions to make, the Angels don’t want to get caught waiting for a Teixeira deal to materialize when there is no guarantee of it happening. In previous winters the Angels got caught paying too much attention to guys like Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano while plans B and C already had passed them by.

Lackey and his $9million option seem to be a no-brainer. With Anderson and Guerrero both approaching their designated-hitter years, keeping both doesn’t seem logical.

The Angels could decide to keep Guerrero while letting Anderson go and then sign Rivera to take over in left field. Chone Figgins is an option in left if the Angels can add a third baseman.

Garland would seem to be on his way out. His 14-8 record and 196<MD+,%30,%55,%70>2/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>3 innings were appreciated, but he will end up costing too much for a guy who wasn’t even used as a starter in the playoffs. Garland figures to go to a club itching to add a No.2 or 3 starter and that is willing to pay up to $12 million a season.

The Rodriguez decision figures to be a complex one. His major-league record 62 saves will raise his price, but he also looked as vulnerable as ever this past season and the debate has always raged about just how much a closer is really worth anyway.

Is Rodriguez worth $14 million a season, after making $10million this past year?

“That’s not my job,” Rodriguez said recently when the contract subject came up. “I already did my job. Now my agent has to do his.

“At this point, I’m not thinking about that.”

A turbulent offseason awaits. It would have been much easier to handle had the Angels been able to win it all.

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